Decoding the Words of a Total Stoic, or Not
by rookie-chan
Summary: If you can’t put your feelings on simple words, why don’t you tell the opposite instead? It could mean that somehow you’ve renounced them, but expressing your feelings with the words “Are you stupid?” might be too much for a girl like her. RyoSaku


**Title: **De**c**oding the Words of a Total Stoic—or Not  
**Summary: **If you can't put your feelings on simple words, why don't you tell them the opposite instead? It could mean that somehow, you've renounced them, but simply expressing your feelings by saying the words "Are you stupid?" might be too much for her.**  
****Pairing**: Ryoma x Sakuno**  
Genre: **Romance, Drama

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Prince of Tennis, really. =D

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"Are you stupid?!" Ryoma furiously demanded with his hands balled into fists.

Stammered, Ryuzaki Sakuno stared back at him with an obvious mix of quizzicality and pain induced by his straight and firm voice. "R-Ryoma-kun…"

And she started to cry.

-

If it weren't from what happened a few days ago, the present situation could have been avoided.

It was the _random_ senior's fault.

With a tennis racket slung along her shoulder, Sakuno propped herself under a certain cherry blossom tree near the headquarters of Seigaku's Girl's Tennis Club. The morning practice was finally over for that Saturday, and Sakuno thought that maybe a little rest might give her a boost sometime. She has been practicing a lot in belief that somehow she might improve, so that her _crush _won't bug her how long her hair is for tennis. And she thought that she'd prove him wrong, that although she has an extremely long hair, she'll be able to manage even just one game.

She never thought that daydreaming would be a habit that she'll be doing for a lot of times.

Thinking about Ryoma Echizen never failed to make Sakuno smile, and even frown. For her, Ryoma is such a good person to start with, even if he is outwardly aloof and cold to other people. She believed that "if someone looks at Ryoma on the other way, people might see that he also cares". And, until now, that belief of hers is still in her heart.

He's too good to be true, which brought Sakuno a few negative outlooks.

At their first meeting at the train station, she never thought that Ryoma is that impressive. He was able to join the Regulars, and won matches from time to time. There is a certain force that made her feel awkward—for her, it is as if Ryoma is so high.

But, she knew that even if in his eyes she's visible or not, she should still support him because of her 'if- someone-looks-at-Ryoma-on-the-other-way' perspective.

Sakuno smiled again as she stared at the azure sky.

Blocking her view from the sunlight, a tall guy (who was obviously a senior) stood in front of Sakuno and mercilessly said, "Get out. That's my place, stupid."

Sakuno felt how fear and embarrassment struck her at once. She stood up as fast as she could, bent down for her tennis bag and dusted her skirt.

Irritated, the senior pushed Sakuno away from under the tree, and then he lied on the grass.

"Ah!" Sakuno gasped when she was about to stumble.

There were two, warm hands that caught Sakuno's frail body by the waist and arm, which brought Sakuno relief and another layer of bedazzlement.

"A-ra?" she blinked several times.

"Oi," Ryoma called out with his cat-like eyes glaring at the senior. "That's my place."

Sakuno's eyes widened as she tried to register what Ryoma said. "R-Ryoma-kun?"

"Haaah?!" the senior student glared back. "I don't care if you're a super rookie or what. All I need for you **noobs** to do is to just leave-"

"You're a player, right?" Ryoma asked with his usual, mocking tone. "Let's play a match. If I win, you'll find another place and leave."

Hearing Ryoma's words made Sakuno blink several times. Is he serious? And, what did he just do?

"Hah..." the senior chuckled. "Hahahahaha! I'll make you eat your words, Ryoma Echizen."

The day after their little deal, Ryoma and the said senior had the match. Just as what people expected, Ryoma won the match within 7 straight games without even using his left hand.

Sakuno watched the match, too, silently supporting Ryoma together with her best friend, Tomoka. Sakuno thought that it was a good thing that no one in the school knew that the match was all because of _that_ place, or else other people might think that Ryoma was psychopathically affected by just a spot under a tree.

After the match, Ryoma made his way towards the tennis club's locker room together with Momoshiro.

"Oi, Echizen!" Momoshiro ecstatically called out with such a happy face. Ryoma, in return, looked at Momoshiro with his usual passive face. "I wonder why you had to crush the opponent that quickly… hmm, got a date?" he asked while he opened his own locker.

Ryoma opened his own locker, too, but ignored Momoshiro.

Momoshiro glared at Ryoma, and said, "You know Echizen, you're such a **noob**!"

Hearing the word "noob" made Echizen turn his attention towards his noisy senior. Did he just hear that word somewhere?

"You know, you're such a tennis freak that it seems like you wanted to marry your racket at the tennis court!" Momoshiro scolded like a love genius.

Ryoma raised an eyebrow at him, with his eyes totally focused at his senior.

"Echizen, sometimes, tennis is just like love. No matter how many times you hit the ball away, it'll always return back to you. The harder you hit it to the wall, the more impact it will bounce back until it hurts and hits you, but whenever that thing happens, your sentences just become expressions, right? That's why, don't repel _those_ feelings." Momoshiro explained as he involuntarily closed his eyes and smiled.

Because of what Momoshiro said, Ryoma was stammered.

"Ugh…" Ryoma managed to say. "You did that to Tachibana's sister, didn't you?"

Snapped back to the reality, Momoshiro looked at Ryoma with a blushing face. "Huh? Umm… well… it seems so… It was until I did such crazy things because sometimes, I could even hear her voice at any place…" he sheepishly said.

"Ah!"

Momoshiro wondered. "Hm?"

"Like suddenly jumping into a bully scenario and then challenge the bully to a match for the sake of a girl?" Ryoma asked like a 5 year old kid with a serious yet curious face.

"Well, yeah…" Momoshiro nodded.

Ryoma's eyes widened. "So…that was it…"

Noticing Ryoma's recent facial expression, Momoshiro smirked. "Heh?" He slung his arm around Ryoma's shoulders. "You did that for her, right?" he grinned.

Such warmth crept at Ryoma's cheeks, making him blush for a girl for the first time. He hung his head low, with his cap almost covering his reddening face. "Hn,"

"Kh," Momo started to chuckle. "Kehehe! I knew it! You like her, right? You like her!" he started to tease and poke Ryoma's cheek. "Ah, so young!"

Because of what his sempai was doing, Ryoma decided to put up with Momo's teasing as he said with closed eyes, "I've got no time for things like that." And then, he walked away from him. "I still have to _marry_ my racket at the field. Ja." He said and left.

"Haha! That kid..." Ryoma could still hear Momo's laughter.

"Hn,"

Leaving the locker room with Momoshiro's advice lingering in his brain confused him. This is the very first time that something like this happened to him. To top it all off, he already started making a move by saving Sakuno from the senior. Did it mean '_that_'—?

Ryoma stopped in front of the door and stared at the ground. What is he thinking? He still has tennis practice to do, right? But, what is this feeling?

He smirked. Yeah, it couldn't be that. It was just his instincts that saved her, which means that it was a pure coincidence. He even did that a lot of times before. Damn, why did God have forsaken her by not giving her a backbone?!

Momoshiro might be right, but it would be too impossible that it happened to him. He didn't do anything! It couldn't be… and he had to go to his tennis practice.

"Ryoma-kun," she greeted.

_It was until I did such crazy things because sometimes, I could even hear her voice at any place…_

Ryoma smirked. "No, it couldn't be you, Ryuzaki…"

And then, he raised his head to see the brunette.

"Ryoma-kun," she said as she fixed her sight on the ground.

Ryoma's eyes widened. What is she doing there? And why is she there? A few questions started to occupy his head, making him to mentally and _emotionally_ panic.

She clasped her hands together, looked directly at Ryoma's eyes and pushed a teary-eyed smile. "Thank you, Ryoma-kun…"

Staring at those deep, expressive brown eyes made him stare for more, his tongue like taken aback. That's why, all that he was able to manage was, "A-ah."

A few days after the match, Ryoma was not able to meet Sakuno one-on-one. Every time he sees her, she's always with somebody else, which made him annoyed and irritated at the same time. Normally, every lunch, he would wait for her to bring a bento, but nothing from her came. Is she avoiding him? Or is it just because he became extra-aware of what's happening, and he thought that she did not want to be with him anymore?

Those days were cruel, realization days—there ha been a lot of times when Kaidoh, Momoshiro or Eiji had to hit his face during practice to gain his focus back from the outside field, searching for a certain petite, auburn-haired girl who wasn't even present.

It was until that day—the day where dark-gray clouds hung ominously at the skies, boding rain.

After the rigorous tennis practice, Ryoma decided to tend his left cheek under a familiar, shaded tree—the tree that gained Ryoma's trust when it comes to his realization between a game of tennis and a game of the new, odd feeling called love.

Much to his surprise, when he was about a few feet away from him, he saw someone else resting under the tree.

He could feel his heart thrum excitedly against his ribcage—the same feeling whenever he knew that he's against a tennis player he found challenging. That's why, he ran towards the place, and proved that his intuition was true.

There she was, and it made him smirk—he's gonna do _it_, now. It's now or never.

_The harder you hit it to the wall, the more impact it will bounce back until it hurts and hits you, but whenever that thing happens, your sentences just become expressions, right?_

Blocking her view from the sunlight, Ryoma stood in front of Sakuno; his face was dimmed by the tree's shadow. He smirked once more and told her, "That's my place."

Hearing that familiar voice of him made Sakuno gasp back to reality and cringe. "R-Ryoma-kun…"

When he saw her immediate action, Ryoma sat in front of her like a daddy staring at his confused daughter. "W-What's the-" Ryoma started to speak, but it was as if the necessary words were scattered outside his head. His cheek hasn't even healed yet, and the sudden surge of confessing for the first time was not a good thing to do at the current situation.

Sakuno flinched away from him.

Finally, the first set of hard-to-utter words was released.

"What's the matter?"

She could feel her tears dwelling at the corners of her eyes, and she did not want to let him see that. "A-anou… Ryoma-kun…" she heaved as she hugged her knees towards her. "I'm… sorry… I'm sorry if I was such a hassle…"

"E-eh?"

Sakuno dug her face on her knees, her tears at the peak of rolling down. "Ryoma-kun, I'm really… sorry… If that thing didn't happen, then maybe I wasn't able to waste your time. I could have just silently watched and supported there without any deals or what and—"

"Are you stupid?!" Ryoma furiously demanded with his hands balled into fists.

Stammered, Ryuzaki Sakuno stared back at him with an obvious mix of quizzicality and pain induced by his straight and firm voice. "R-Ryoma-kun…"

And she started to cry, as the beheld rain started to pour down from the dark sky.

Ryoma stood up in front of her, and retorted. "Damn it, Ryuzaki…" he said with creases forming on his forehead. "Why do you have to do this to me?! Just… Just when I was able to know what _this_ is…" he accused, his right hand clutching the cloth on his chest. "Just… Just when I knew what was the difference…"

Sakuno sobbed. "I'm really sorry, but…" she apologized once more, totally ignoring the rain that kept on falling down. "…but I don't really know how to decode a stoic person like you, Ryoma-kun…" she unwillingly said, as her tears came along with the aimless rain. "Sometimes, you're too high. And then, whenever I'm in a bad situation, you come down from that place and save me. Everytime you do that, Ryoma-kun, I feel like I'm disturbing you. Maybe it was all because I believe too much to the thought that there's something else inside you that we don't really know, or…" She suddenly stopped as the upcoming thought brought disappointment to her. "…maybe there's none…" she mumbled, and she hugged her knees tighter.

Ryoma's eyes widened because of the girl's confession.

The rain seeped through her skin, making her feel the coldness envelop her body. She sulked again and said, "But, whatever happens, I'll still… I'll still support you, Ryoma-kun—"

Out of a sudden, the coldness was replaced with such warmth that stunned her for a while.

"Tsch, how troublesome," Ryoma half-heartedly cursed as he patted Sakuno's auburn hair. "You're such a crybaby."

_But I don't really know how to decode a stoic person like you, Ryoma-kun_.

Those were the words that made Ryoma's embrace on her get even tighter. He was struck—she was able to tell him how she really felt, while he, the one who was really about to confess everything that he should say, wasn't.

…_your sentences just become expressions, right?_

Remembering his senior's words was a ray of light in the midst of the current situation. If he can't say it directly to her, why don't he express his feelings through his actions and expressions instead? He knew that it could be dangerous, but it was the only resolve that he had for the moment.

Sakuno moped against Ryoma's chest and said, "I… I'm really sorry, Ryoma-kun…"

"Ryuzaki," he spoke as he stroked Sakuno's wet, yet soft brown hair.

Sakuno raised her head and looked at Ryoma with such innocent eyes.

Ryoma's arms around her waist went tighter, whilst he leaned forward to kiss her trembling lips.

How he wished that somehow, she had already decoded if he was really stoic, or not.

**.Fin****

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**A/N: Oh, LOL. Say hurray to me! I used my account again haha. So, here it is. "Decoding the Words of a Total Stoic--Or Not". I really wrote this last summer (oh yeah, it's this old X3) and posted it in our LJ community, Imagination: Unleashed. I usually submit my latest works there because of the challenges that I joined. Haha.**

**So, guys, I'm really sorry for leaving you without a proper update. Please proceed to my profile if you wish to know more about my current writing status 8D**

**Ja'ne!**

**rookie-chan**


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